BENGALURU: The revenue department has begun a process to detect bogus applications to get land regularised under bagair hukum -- farming by landless people on government land. “We are digitising land records to make the department completely paper-free,” Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said, and directed officials to link Aadhaar with the applicants to know if they are eligible to avail of the land. Gowda said a large number of people who had applied are not eligible.
He directed officials to complete the disposal of applications under bagair hukum. “In 2017, we had amended the law and regularised farming on government land for landless people who had taken up cultivation. Under this, 9.29 lakh applications claiming 54 lakh acres of land are pending before the state government. These applications were filed for regularisation, and it is our priority to dispose of them,”
he said.
“We have Aadhaar details of the applicants. The tahasildars are verifying how much land they own and if they are eligible to apply under this law. We are also using satellite images to check if cultivation is happening. We will give this to the Bagair Hukum committee to take a decision,” he added.
The minister said this is for people who don’t have their own land. “Even if they do, it should not be more than 4 acres. Many people, knowingly or unknowingly, are cultivating government land and this needs to be regularised. Many ineligible people have also applied. The law is for poor but many are trying to misuse it. Rich people with acres of land have applied,” Gowda said.
The process of disposing of applications is being streamlined and committees headed by MLAs have been told to digitise meetings. There are cases where meetings were conducted in the absence of MLAs. He also said they have received applications from 50 taluks, seeking constitution of Bagair Hukum committees, which will be done in the next few weeks. Gowda also pointed that Rs 50 lakh is needed for each tahsildar’s office for complete digitisation.